Accompanying her boyfriend in Spain, Julieta, a middle aged woman, who lives in Madrid, who struggles against finding out that her long lost daughter lives there, so she has to confront her past to meet her.
Despite its shorter length, the film never feels unfulfilled or abbreviated. Its terrific performances, beautiful narrative, and haunting score... are so immersive that decades of life go by without it ever dragging.
"Julieta" may not be top-tier Almodovar, but a collaboration between him and Munro, two artists who have spent their lives going deep into the interior lives of women, shouldn't be overlooked.
Almodóvar makes a game effort to replicate Munro's complex, nonchronological storytelling, though the three tales don't hang together as well as one might hope.
Almodóvar has made some powerful melodramas before, but here, working with a new crop of actors and unusually wishy-washy material, he doesn't quite pull it off.
Designed, acted and composed with characteristically admirable intention and intelligence, but it doesn't aspire to the pitch of delirium that distinguishes the director's most memorable work.
"Julieta" is filled with Almodóvar's usual attention to vivid color (a turquoise turtleneck worn by young Julieta seems to add notes to the film's moody musical score), and to the ways women talk to each other.
Julieta has been called a departure for the filmmaker... It certainly is, if by "departure" we mean a really dull and convoluted movie as opposed to a good one.
